The Way We're Working Isn't Working: How Intense Focus and Frequent Renewal Fuel Great Performance

Demand is exceeding our capacity. The ethic of "more, bigger, faster" exacts a series of silent but pernicious costs at work, undermining our energy, focus, creativity, and passion. Nearly 75 percent of employees around the world feel disengaged at work every day. The Way We're Working Isn't Working offers a groundbreaking approach to reenergizing our lives so were both more satisfied and more productive, on the job and off.

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Publisher's Summary

The Way We're Working Isn't Working is one of those rare books with the power to profoundly transform the way we work and live.

Demand is exceeding our capacity. The ethic of "more, bigger, faster" exacts a series of silent but pernicious costs at work, undermining our energy, focus, creativity, and passion. Nearly 75 percent of employees around the world feel disengaged at work every day.

The Way Were Working Isnt Working offers a groundbreaking approach to reenergizing our lives so were both more satisfied and more productive, on the job and off. By integrating multidisciplinary findings from the science of high performance, Tony Schwartz, coauthor of the number-one best-selling The Power of Full Engagement, makes a persuasive case that were neglecting the four core needs that energize great performance: sustainability (physical); security (emotional); self-expression (mental); and significance (spiritual). Rather than running like computers at high speeds for long periods, we're at our best when we pulse rhythmically between expending and regularly renewing energy across each of our four needs.

Organizations undermine sustainable high performance by forever seeking to get more out of their people. Instead they should seek systematically to meet their four core needs so they're freed, fueled, and inspired to bring the best of themselves to work every day.

Drawing on extensive work with an extraordinary range of organizations, among them Google, Ford, Sony, Ernst & Young, Shell, IBM, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Cleveland Clinic, Schwartz creates a road map for a new way of working.

What the Critics Say

"The foundations of great leadership are self-awareness and thoughtful action, and the ideas in this book can be truly life-changing for both. The transformative power of this lies in its ability to help very smart and already high-performing people change their current behaviors to be even more effective, fulfilled and connected to others." (Evan Wittenberg, Head of Global Leadership Development, Google, Inc.)

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The performance was solid. He did a great job of explaining the charts that are included the book. Most importantly, the content was incredible.

I'm the type of person that tries to squeeze every hour out of the day. This year I cut back on sleep so that I could fit in more time for my faith, family, fitness, job, etc. I was getting 4-6 hours per night but still felt like I wasn't getting everything I wanted out of the day.

This book brought to my attention some simple ideas on how to structure time for work, and more importantly, to also structure time for renewal. Tony uses a series of matrices to help you identify where you're spending time and where you should be spending your time.

If you feel as though you're burning the candle at both ends, this books is for you.

Where does The Way We're Working Isn't Working rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This fresh perspective on efficiency and productivity is truly groundbreaking and is the culmination of a brilliant career writing about leaders and organizations to effect change and studying the science of high performance. He has co-authored books with the likes of Donald Trump and Michael Eisner and is currently the CEO of the Energy Project dedicated to energizing people by creating a framework within organizations that encourages employees to find meaning and purpose in their careers.

The way we are working isn't working brings understanding of how to maximize our productivity and performance through a scientific look at our use of energy, motivation, and willpower. It has great practical action steps that anyone can implement effectively doubling or tripling their productivity. I'm a believer and I highly recommend this book.

I like Tony Schwartz's message in this and previous writings. His suggestions are spot on for our overworked, tired, hamster brained American workforce. The average worker works more and more hours and it is becoming the norm for companies to keep people in an almost continuous on-call state. There is little value in renewal, contemplation, space, healthy living and all those things that make humans effective through living a meaningful life. Make the changes in this book and you'll find the quality and impact of what you do triple, and the time you spend with your family and friends and doing things you like re-appear without guilt. You'll also also get over being called a wuss for taking an occasional power nap to keep your energy high late in the day.

I have the hard copy of this book, but I wanted to review it several times. I didn't have the time to sit and review the print version, so the audio was a time-efficient way to do review and reinforce the key ideas.

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A

Would you listen to another book narrated by Tony Schwartz?

Absolutely.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It's easy to listen to in 10-minute segments, or longer if you prefer.

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